Album Review

After guitarist Clint Werner turned his basement into a 16-track studio, the band members self-produced their fourth album with a clear debt to the surge of grunge. Their punk roots are given a good Bleach-ing as the band turns up the Nirvana-isms, with roaring guitars and greater use of dynamics along with more measured tempos. Still punchier than most of their Sabbath-bred Northwestern contemporaries, cuts such as "Card Tricks" and "Wait for the Fade" alternate slow, heavy riff-driven passages with loud and fast rule breaks. The overdriven, thicker sound sometimes obscures the band's inherent charm, with songs like "Chalk the Cracks" and "Turnout" seeming a little stiff in comparison to the insistent rush of "One Inch Punch" or the churning, moody anthems "Losing Skin" and "Kid Candy." This could also be partly due to the production, which had seemed crisp with Jack Endino on previous albums, but here seems a little saturated. Another problem is singer Aaron Stauffer's decision to offer a hoarse shout rather than sing on a number of the songs. Still, there's a lot to recommend this album, not the least of which is the band's ample energy — as evidenced in the open-throttle attack of "In Fairness" — and swooning, melancholy guitar melodics.

Customer Reviews

Pretty Good

by
elderly woman behind the counter in a big town

This band is pretty good I don't know how they went unoticed as much as they did.

A great album in '93 and still good now

by
Tacomaroma

A classic power pop 90s album. Your collection is incomplete without this album.
Subpop or Seaweed, please make available on itune the Four EP with "Go Your Own Way". Seaweed is a great band to see live. Go see them if they come to your city - they recently had a reunion at bumbershoot

What is iTunes talking about?

by
Deathsnake

I really don't think that just because Seaweed and Nirvana were both on SubPop for a while that either band have anything to do with one another.

Biography

Formed: 1989 in Tacoma, WA

Genre: Alternative

Years Active: '90s

Punk unit Seaweed formed in Tacoma, WA, in 1989. Singer Aaron Stauffer, fresh off a stint in the little-known Spook & the Zombies, founded the band with best friend Clint Werner, who assumed guitar duties. After the recruitment of guitarist Wade Neal, bassist John Atkins, and drummer Bob Bulgrien, Seaweed began playing clubs throughout the Pacific Northwest, in 1990 releasing its debut four-song single on Atkins' Leopard Gecko label; "Just a Smirk" followed that same year, and in 1991 the band...